Case Study: Sheike

A family-owned fashion empire that began with one man: George Lazaridis, a sailor turned Sydney market t-shirt stall holder. Now a 30-store Australian success story, with more than 200 employees across the country, the company has grown considerably since the first store opened in 1979.

Overview

Industry:

Retail

Number of employees

200+

Location(s):

30 stores across Australia

Ownership

Private

We spoke to:

Yusi Newnham CPA Finance Manager

Project Outline:

Were using: Manual timesheets, each store sending theirs for payroll individually for review then onto 3rd party payroll provider. Rosters were also manual, making it hard to share staff across sites and compare rosters between stores.

Trigger for change: Errors from too many manual process, feeling out of control using third party payroll, not able to grow, and 'nigh impossible' wage control.

Humanforce Solution

Results

Instead of paying a monthly fee for outsourced payroll AND paying to have it checked, our payroll now takes one person half a day and is all done in-house (accurately) which is a significant time and cost reduction.

Complete visibility over rosters, availability and leave – at all times – allows simple forecasting, planning and budgeting.

Total control over wage costs, as each store now has all the information it needs to stay on budget (which of course means better group profit)

All the different wage regulations in the different States are handled by one system. So staff are paid the right rates for their age and times on shift, no matter what store they work in.

Time theft is no longer a concern now finger vein scanners are used that 'you can't fake'.

The Full Story

Sheike (it's pronounced 'chic') is a family-owned fashion empire that began with one man, a Sydney market t-shirt stall and a two-word English vocabulary. Since the first store opened in 1979, George Lazaridis'
vision has become a 30-store Australian success story. With 200+ employees across the country, Sheike needed a time and attendance system every bit as contemporary as this season's fashions.

"Before TimeTarget?" Yusi Newnham, Sheike's Finance Manager, thinks back. "When I joined the business we were using manual timesheets.
We'd have to gather every sheet from every store, review them, and then pass them on to the third party payroll provider we were using at the time. As you can imagine, the potential for error – and for time theft – was just enormous.

"Then I was introduced to TimeTarget and realised just how much control we could wrestle back, how many errors we could prevent, and how much more efficient, accountable and accurate we could be."

Making 30 rosters work together

Until TimeTarget, Sheike's rostering had been a manual process – using spreadsheets. Not only did that make comparing cross-site rosters "really confusing", it also limited
the company's potential to use its 'floating' casual staff (staff shared between a number of stores) effectively.

"Now we can review multiple sites really clearly. We're also able to allocate floating staff so much more effectively and once they're assigned they're blocked out so you can't double book them for another store."

The system that makes in-house payroll easy

Most companies have in-house payroll first, then they outsource. Sheike did it the other way around. "We were effectively paying twice: one monthly
fee for the payroll, and another for a resource to check what we sent them! Compared to the way we work now, it was so much more expensive."

Now, Sheike processes its payroll in-house, using TimeTarget to rationalise the data for the HR3 software that, as Yusi explains, "integrates brilliantly with TimeTarget. Our payroll takes one person half a day."

Clarity and control

"In retail, staff turnover can be quite high. When you're sending the details of new starters and finishers to a third party you can feel as though you're losing control.
And you have to pay the third party to process all these things for you."

"Now we do it all ourselves," says Yusi, "so we have complete visibility over our rosters, availability and leave. Wage control used to be nigh on impossible. Now, each
store has the information it needs to stay in control of costs, and that of course aids group profit."

"We used to say that if we didn't fix manual spreadsheets as the business grew, then the problems would grow too. TimeTarget has made growing easier. We're a really happy customer."

Complex employment regulations made simple

"Pay regulations vary wildly in Australia. They vary according to age, shifts, and across states, so finding a rostering system that can handle all of that makes a huge difference to the success of our forecasting and our cost control."

Eliminating time theft

Sheike uses TimeTarget's vein scanners across its stores for staff clocking in and out. "We needed to increase security,
visibility and accountability. We did look at other systems before opting for TimeTarget. But where they offered swipe cards,

TimeTarget's vein scanners have eliminated time fraud at a stroke. We love it. You can't fake it."